psychopathology AO1 Flashcards
what is failure to function adequately
not being able to cope with the demands of everyday life. abnormal behaviour that interferes with everyday life e.g. being unable to maintain personal hygiene. Rosenhan and Seligman found signs for someone failing to function adequately (maladaptive behaviour, illrational behaviour or behaviour that is a risk to themselves or others)
clinical charecteristics of phobia
panic and avoidance (behavioural)
persistent irrational beliefs and selective attention (cognative)
fear and anxiety (emotional)
what does the two-process model suggest
phobias are learnt behaviour
example of failure to function adequately
if someone has depression they may not be able to keep a job, maintain personal hygiene or get out of bed. therefore showing they have an inability to cope with the everyday demands of life.
what is the cognative strategy in treating depression
cognative strategy = empirical disbuting where the therapist will ask for evidence to support the negative thought, this can be done by giving a patient a diary to test the reality of their beliefs and challenge them to prove them wrong.
cognative charecteristics of depression
poor levels of concentration
negative schema
black and white thinking
what is behavioural aim
behavioural aim = putting more effective behaviours into place
Explain Ellis’ cognative approch to depression - Ellis’s ABC model
ellis empasizes that irrational thoughts interfere with us being happy
what are the 3 stages to ellis’s ABC model
A = there is an ACTIVATING EVENT that is an external event that can trigger
B - BELIEFS. ellis identified a range of beliefs that’re irrational, for example that we must always achieve perfection (musterbation) and that the world is fair (utopianism). when an activating event triggers an irrational belief there are emotional
C = CONSEQUENCES such as depression.
what is cognative aim
cognative aim = the therapsit and client will work together to identify any irrational or negative thoughts and will challenge them to turn them into more rational and positive thinking.
what is behavioural strategy
behavioural strategy = behavioural activation is used to encourage the depressed individual to be more active. patients are encouraged to do activities they once enjoyed to help improve positive thoughts.
systematic desensitisation
- relaxation = the patient is taught how to relax using muscle relaxation and breathing exersizes
- hierarchy of anxiety = the patient and researcher create a graded scale with the phobic stimulus that scares them the most to the phobic stimulus that scares them the least
- gradual exposure = the patient is exposed to the least feared stimulus and is encouraged to put into practice their relaxation techniques (reciprocal inhibition). the patient then works their way up the graded scale, only moving up a step after they have done the one before and are fully relaxed.
- treatment = patient is treated when they are able to move through the hierarchy without anxiety.
the biological explanation to OCD
argues that OCD is due to biological factors inside the body. OCD tends to run in families and would suggest a genetic predisposition to OCD being inherited. It would argue that OCD is due to the inheritance of maladaptive genes as OCD is polygenetic. the candidate genes that make an individual vulnerable to developing OCD are the SERT gene and the COMT gene.
what are the 4 stages to treating depression through Cognative Behavioural Therapy
cognative aim
cognative strategy
behavioural aim
behavioural strategy
who did research into the two-process model
Watson and Raynor on Little Albert
what are the 3 stages of becks negative triad
- negative views about the world
- negative views about self
- negative views about the future
the neuroanatomical explanation to OCD
OCD is linked to impaired decision making due to abnormal functioning of the brain. OCD is linked to abnormal functioning in the frontal lobe which is linked to decision making, linking to obsessions in OCD as the individual is unaware the process is irrational. The parahippocampal gyrus is associated with processing unpleasant emotions which functions abnormally in people who have OCD
what does the COMT gene do
linked to the regulation of dopamine which has been found to be more common in people with OCD. increased levels of dopamine is linked with compulsions in OCD.
the neural explanation to OCD
says OCD is due to an imbalance of neurotransmitters, specifically low levels of seretonin. A mutation in the SERT gene causes seretonin to be recycled too quickly from the pre to the post synapic neuron. low levels of seretonin activity can lead to anxiety which is linked to obsessions in OCD
what does the SERT gene do
is linked to the transportation seretonin which keeps a stable mood, but if mutated it increases anxiety which is linked to the OCD symptom of obsessions
what is the two-process model
classical conditioning - learning to associate something we have no fear of initially with something that triggers a fear response.
operant conditioning - maintaining the phobia through avoidance as they’re negatively reainforced by reducing the anxiety they feel
emotional charecteristics of depression
lowered mood
anger
what did Watson and Raynor do
at the beginning albert was not afraid of rats
whenever a rat was presented near albert the researher made a loud and frightening noise by banging an iron bar close to his ear
this noise is the UCS which leads to the UCR of fear
when the rat was presented with the UCR albert began to associate them
the rat become the CS because of the CR of fear in albert
this fear could be generalised further to a similar object such as a beard on a santa mask
what is a phobia
when someone experiences extreme anxiety or fear that’s activated by an object, place or situation. the fear of the phobic stimulus is irrational and often out of proportion to any real danger.
clinical charecteristics to OCD
emotional = anxiety
cognative = obsessions and awareness and hypervigilance
behavioral = avoidance and compulstions
Explain Beck’s cognative approch to depression - Beck’s Negative Triad
he states that consistent nagtive thinking can make someone vulnerable to depression. this can be due to faulty information processing where people attend to all the negative aspects of a situation (black and white thinking.)
what is flooding
the patient has sudden exposure to the most feared phobic stimulus and must stay in its presence. they will experience high levels of anxiety as they are unable to avoid the stimulus. they remain exposed to the stimulus until the anxiety response is exhausted, this usually lasts 2-3 hours. this is called extinction as the patient learns the phobia stimulus is harmless.
behavioural charecteristics of depression
change in activity levels
distruption to sleep
disruption to eating behaviour
